Programs are typically canceled for financial reasons; low viewership or listenership will lead to lower advertising or subscription revenue, prompting networks to replace it with another show with the potential to turn a larger profit.
Even so, programs that end their runs in this manner are sometimes incorrectly stated to have been canceled, even if the program was renewed for a final season (such as with American Idol, by which the term was incorrectly applied upon the announcement of Fox, Fremantle Media and 19 Entertainment's decision to renew the show for a 15th and final season in May 2015 to air in 2016);[1][2][3] shows that are canceled traditionally end their runs during the television season in which the program airs first-run episodes at the time, either effective immediately after the announcement is made by the network or until all remaining episodes are broadcast.
[6] Due to its strength in young demographics, Friends was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial as Murder, She Wrote, even though the two television series had similar total viewer numbers during the seasons they were on the air together.
Game shows and self-contained reality shows, which can be produced on short order with very little preparation compared to scripted series and annual contests, may not be canceled in the same way, but merely have the network cease ordering episodes and end up in limbo (except for those that have high production costs); in turn, these types of shows are also easily brought back if a network needs to produce filler programming quickly (as was the case with Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, which was renewed more than three years after it had produced its last episode because of a programming shortage on Fox).
Notable cases are Turn-On and Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos, which were canceled after viewer and station outrage (in the latter case, it managed to be cancelled despite being a special, being pulled off-air midway through its lone airing by the network's owner); Bridget Loves Bernie, which was forced off the air in 1973 despite high ratings because of threats of violence from Jewish radicals; Flatbush, an adaptation of the film The Lords of Flatbush that was cancelled after three episodes due to its offensive ethnic portrayals and the resulting objections from Howard Golden, the Kings County executive;[9] Home Run Derby, which was canceled in 1960 due to the host's death (Major League Baseball would make the concept an official annual event beginning in 1986); Roseanne, which was cancelled in 2018 despite considerable commercial success over objections to title star Roseanne Barr's social media comments (Roseanne was eventually retooled without Barr as The Conners); Megan Wants a Millionaire, which was cancelled in August 2009 following the arrest warrant and subsequent suicide of one of the finalists; Winky Dink and You, canceled because its interactive television component caused countless children to both sit too close to the TV set (raising concerns about X-ray radiation from early cathode ray tubes) and damage home television sets by drawing directly on the screens (the show was meant to be used with a plastic sheet covering the screen); and Cops and Live PD, which were both cancelled in June 2020 in the wake of protests following the murder of George Floyd (Cops would be revived a year later as an online-only production after the protests had subsided and the police officer who killed Floyd was convicted).
[10] In 2007, Jericho was given an additional seven-episode order after fans mailed thousands of pounds of nuts to network executives (a reference to a pivotal line in the season finale).
were revived in the form of theatrical films (an uncommon occurrence, since failed television series are usually not considered bankable movie material), Family Guy was returned to Fox,[12] and Futurama (the volume 5 DVD cover touts the tag line "back by popular harassment!")
[13] Arrested Development was revived for a fourth season in 2013 (seven years after being canceled by Fox) as a Netflix Original Series, after episodes of its initial run proved popular on the streaming service.
Often this is in the form of a spin-off show featuring new characters (such as Star Trek: The Next Generation which premiered eighteen years after the original series went off the air).
This approach has seen increased exposure in the 2010s, with shows such as Girl Meets World (a follow-up to Boy Meets World), Fuller House (a follow-up to Full House), Will & Grace and Roseanne all returning to television approximately a full generation after the original series aired.
One example of such a scenario was Lovers and Friends, which was placed on hiatus in May 1977 and was retitled as For Richer, For Poorer when it returned in December 1977; the program would end in September 1978.